It took four days.

Fenn found the thread on the second day — a formatting artifact buried in the file metadata, a timestamp that didn't match the stated creation date.

Someone had built the files on a system set to a different time zone.

Eastern Europe.

Specific enough to narrow.

On the third day, Marco came back with a name.

Valentina was in her office when he said it.

"Tomas Vrek."

She looked up from the desk.

Tomas Vrek had been Carlo Ferraro's personal accountant for nine years.

After Carlo's death, he had been quietly released from the Ferraro payroll — or so it had appeared.

He had, in fact, been retained privately by a third party, paid through a shell company registered in a name that took Fenn another eighteen hours to trace back to its source.

The source was a man named Aldric Senn.

A financier.

No family affiliation.

No criminal record.

A man who moved money for people who needed it moved quietly, and who had, for the past two years, been positioning himself as a neutral broker between several of the families at last night's table.

A man who had everything to gain if the Carbone seat went into review.

Valentina read the full report twice.

Then she set it down and looked at the window.

"Where is Vrek now?" she said.

"An apartment in the city.

He hasn't left since the luncheon."

"And Senn?"

"Still operating.

Still meeting with two of the families from last night."

She thought about that for a moment.

"He doesn't know the meeting failed."

"Not yet.

Renata hasn't made contact with him since Thursday.

She's been at home."

Valentina stood.

"Get me Renata."

Renata arrived within the hour.

She came without her two men, which told Valentina something about where her head was now.

She sat across the desk and looked older than she had four days ago.

"Tomas Vrek," Valentina said.

Renata closed her eyes briefly.

"He came to me eight months ago.

Said he had documentation from Carlo's private files.

Said you had been redirecting money since the funeral." She opened her eyes.

"I wanted it to be true.

I needed someone to blame for—" She stopped.

"For Carlo," Valentina said.

"Yes."

"Vrek gave you a story that turned your grief into a weapon.

And pointed it at me." Valentina leaned forward slightly.

"Who introduced him to you?"

"Senn.

At a dinner.

He said Vrek was a financial consultant who had concerns about the eastern accounts."

"Did Senn know the documents were forged?"

Renata looked at her hands.

"He built the whole thing.

Vrek told me, after Thursday.

He called me — he was frightened.

He said Senn had constructed the files, paid him to authenticate them, and told him the meeting was just a formality.

That no one would look closely."

"Where is Vrek now?"

"I don't know.

He called once and then his number went dead."

Valentina looked at Marco in the doorway.

He nodded once.

They would find Vrek.

She turned back to Renata.

"I need you to put everything Vrek told you in writing.

Dates, conversations, what Senn said, what you were promised.

Everything."

"And then?"

"And then I take it to the families.

Not as an accusation — as a record.

So that every person Senn is currently meeting with understands what he tried to do and why." She paused.

"Carlo built something real.

He deserved better than being used as the reason to destroy it."

Renata's face changed.

The grief that had been hardened into something sharp for eight months shifted, just slightly, into something rawer.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For Lily.

For what Gerald did."

Valentina held her gaze.

"Gerald and Evelyn cooperated fully.

They'll face consequences, but not from me." She stood.

"You were deceived, Renata.

That doesn't erase your choices.

But it changes what they mean."

Renata left.

Marco came in and closed the door behind her.

"Senn," Valentina said.

"I have a contact in his circle.

Someone who can get close enough to confirm his next meeting."

"I don't want him warned off.

I want him to walk into his next conversation with those families still believing the plan worked." She picked up the report.

"And I want to be in the room when he finds out it didn't."

Marco allowed himself a small expression that wasn't quite a smile.

"That's going to be a very short meeting for him."

"Yes," Valentina said.

"It is."